Indian Courts Don't Have Jurisdiction Over Copyright Cases Against ChatGPT, Says OpenAI

OpenAI, the US-based parent company of ChatGPT, told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that Indian courts do not have the jurisdiction to rule on copyright infringement lawsuits filed against the company.

Appearing for OpenAI, senior counsel Amit Sibal stated that disputes arising out of the use of the AI model are governed by specific clauses.

Sibal said that if disputes arise on the heels of responses furnished by ChatGPT, then the dispute should either be referred to arbitration, or if the dispute is non-arbitrable, then it should go to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in California.

While the hearing was underway, Sibal also flagged that submissions of parties, including that of OpenAI's, have been leaked to certain media houses while the dispute is under consideration by the high court.

"They want to argue this case before this court and the public court," Sibal asserted.

The Digital News Publishers Association and the Federation of Indian Publishers, who are intervenors in the present suit, have leaked the submissions and petition copies, Sibal said.

The DNPA stated that OpenAI should back up the allegations with evidence as it was making comments on 'independent reporting.' The commentary is really unfortunate, the DNPA said.

During the hearing, the court stated that it does not want duplicity of arguments and hinted at the fact that the court has already appointed two amicus curiae in the case, and therefore the counsels representing the intervenors may not be heard at length.

Amicus curiae are lawyers that are not a party to the case at hand but are appointed to assist the court.

In response, the counsels for the intervenors stated that this is a case that is highly important in the copyright realm, and they might have some nuances to add to the arguments put forth by the amicus and the lead counsel in the matter. It was urged that they must get their day in court.

The court, thereafter, fixed three different dates for a hearing in this matter. The first hearing will be on Feb. 21, the second will be on March 18, and the third one will be on March 18.

The case pertains to a copyright infringement suit filed by news agency Asian News International against OpenAI.

ANI maintains that OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, has been using ANI's copyrighted content to train the AI model. During the last hearing, it was argued that ChatGPT is producing verbatim or 'substantially similar' content on the platform when certain queries are raised.

Several other news agencies, such as NDTV, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and the Digital News Publishers Association, have joined ANI's lawsuit in its fight against ChatGPT. The Federation of Indian Publishers has also followed suit.

On the other hand, OpenAI has maintained that ChatGPT collects information, transforms it, but never copies the exact expression, adding that the copyright law does not protect facts, only expressions.

In addition, the US-based company has also contended that all its servers are located outside India, which makes ANI's lawsuit jurisdictionally irrelevant.